Banys Orientals is the result of an intelligent response to Barcelona’s hotel scene by one of its savviest restaurateurs, Ramon Parellada. He saw a gap between the cheap pensions and the expensive, impersonal edifices and decided to fill it with a small, fashionable, inexpensive hotel in the heart of the city. Parellada closed his successful restaurant in the Old Town district of El Born for a year, gutted the 18th-century building above it, and filled it with a minimalist 43-room hotel, retaining the old stone façade and internal courtyard.

Banys Orientals though simple and sparse presents an elegant, unpretentious style with soft lighting, gunmetal-greys and black tiles contrasting with the stone and deep ocher of the façade.
Since opening in May 2002, the hotel has received rave reviews including being named in Conde Nast Traveller as one of the 50 most recommended hotels in the world (2003) and the 10 most recommended hotels in the Mediterranean (2004).